The Rebranding of ‘iCarly’

The shift to a more mature audience fourteen years after original air date.

The original Nickelodeon show ‘iCarly’ has been rebooted, but this time as a Paramount+ series. The first three episodes were released recently on the platform, picking up with beloved characters Carly and Freddie continuing their iCarly internet show. The reboot features many of the same actors, including Miranda Cosgrove, Nathan Kress, and Jerry Trainor as their original characters, along with a string of new cast members.

While the original show achieved success in a wide age range, its audience is now shifting to a more mature age. The storyline remains the same, but as the characters have become adults, their problems and experiences showcased on the show have changed. Promotions label it as “for adults”, which the shift to Paramount+ makes fairly obvious, but the age range may not be significantly different, as Nickelodeon shows were sometimes not suited for very young children anyway.

In any case, the rebrand allows the show to try out new plot lines that adjust to new trends in social media and technology, as the characters in iCarly have been called “the original influencers”. Although the reboot initially avoids talk of specific social media platforms and generally talks about their “channel”, it’s clear that the content has adjusted to reflect what social media looks like today.

This specific reboot has been widely anticipated due to the initial success of the show in the early 2000s. A number of adults have grown up with these characters and will tune in to watch how they turned out and to hear their experiences after the show wrapped up in 2012.